This research project aims to evaluate the role of Afro-Brazilian religious organizations/communities in making HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services more accessible to peri-urban areas in Rio de Janeiro. It will use a comparative case study approach to map out the factors that determine the level of involvement of these religious groups in devising and executing HIV/AIDS interventions and advising policymaking that affects peri-urban areas. By using the methodology of the extended case study, the project will contextualize the actions of religious groups within broader networks of civil society organizations and public health officials from the state; and using ethnographic interviews, such as key informant interviews and oral history interviews, the project constructs a historical narrative of the epidemic, as told from the bottom-up. The study will take into account the religious belief and cultural system, the group's organizational structure, and its linkages with surrounding communities in order to explore how factors such as gender, class, and race could be addressed using community-based cultural and structural interventions. I will work closely with networks of religious leaders and NGOs, with which I have established a close relationship in preliminary research. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]